Is Big Data Affecting Your IT Salary?

The topic of IT salaries increases has been a hot one since the annual Dice report was released on January 29th. And it should be. According to Dice’s survey data, the average U.S. tech salary has increased from over $85k in 2012 to nearly $87k in 2013.

That’s an uptick of nearly three percentage points and the biggest increase along the salary bell curve came for those with Big Data expertise. The question is will 2014 provide these Big Data mavens with even more of a salary spike or will the demand fizzle out?

Tech Pros Feel Good About the Future

Let’s start with the numbers reported by Dice. Over a ten year period, IT salaries have increased from a median of $67,800 to a median of $87,811. That’s a growth of 22% in a decade. Though 2013 won’t make the Guinness short list for any record IT salary growth, (the highest IT salary increase in recent years was a 5.3% boost between 2011 and 2012), the number marks a steady upward trend. And it’s inspiring confidence in tech professionals.

Even though the IT job market remains a competitive one, tech professionals aren’t feeling deflated. Companies are boosting IT salaries to keep top talent from wandering off to greener pastures. The IT salary increase has injected a healthy dose of confidence into IT ranks. Almost two-thirds of those tech professionals surveyed by Dice express that they’re confident in their ability to find a “new, better position.” Moreover, Big Data is where it’s at.

Big Data Jobs Hit Pay Dirt…If You Can Get Them

Dice compiled a list of the hottest, most lucrative skills on the market and Big Data technologies were a platinum hit. Of the 10 top paying skills, most are either Big Data specific or are dependent upon an ability to write code for malleable apps that feed on terrabytes of data. The highest average IT salaries by high demanded skill are as follows:

These six figure IT salaries could convince anyone to give Big Data a try but there is an odd trend that might temporarily stall Big Data hiring this year. 57% of companies surveyed by data-driven marketing specialist Infogroup Targeting Solutions said that even though they intended to integrate Big Data tools into their enterprise infrastructure, they didn’t plan to hire new people to use those tools. But is that a mistake?

“Big data is meaningless without manpower,” says David McRae, President of Infogroup, in an interview with CIO. Essentially, what’s the point of having the ultimate answers to the ultimate questions for your business if no one understands the cipher? Growth potential is higher if a company makes a point to acquire top tech professionals in 2014.